The importance of laying down the GROUNDwork – Part 3.
The Eternal Cycle of All Life
“There are no factors in nature that can be judged and evaluated separately.” (Lajos Kreybig)
If we want to understand the function and significance of soils, we must take a step back. Since soil is one of the most important scenes of natural events, examining the biosphere itself should come first if we want to grasp the significance of soil.
The utmost importance of soils for humanity lies in its fertility. In order to showcase this property, I will once again choose a subject. I invite you on a journey through space and time, during which we will follow the life of the 200-year-old oak, from the moment when its seed began to sprout until now. The English oak (whose scientific name is Quercus Robur) is a long-lived autochthon species. When it comes to folklore its key role is irrefutable, durable and robustious trees are highly valued, consequently oak trees are also cherished. They are of chosen to be planted in memory of important locations and events of great significance, which then carried and passed down the legend associated with it for hundreds of years. This is the reason why a lot of ancient trees could have been “handed down”. Oaks could reach the age of three or four hundred years, but they can live much longer. If we let them…
“The Árpád-oak in Hédervár must be the oldest tree in Hungary. According to the legend, the marks on the trunk of the tree were left by the bridle of General Árpád’s horse in 907, when the prince rested here with his army and held a council of war preparing for the Battle of Bratislava. Researchers estimate it to be younger than that, “only” 700-800 years old, nevertheless there are no other trees in our country that reached this old age. Even among the stone masterpieces of architecture, there are few that have survived for so long.”1
When trees are not planted by hand to be a keeper of memories till the end of time, it happened that jays (Garrulus glandarius) sowed the acorns. They are known to do this so that they would have enough food for winter. At the same time jays have numerous hiding places for their food caches so it is not uncommon for them to forget the exact location of some of them. The seeds saved in this way germinate and, if they are lucky, can live for hundreds of years.
Sometime in the mid-1800’s, a jay left an acorn on the ground. This is how our oak’s story begins. In many cases, the seed of a plant already has a so-called “helper” microbial package before entering the ground. As the name suggests, this is a community of helpful microorganisms that is activated when the seeds are planted in the ground. When the radicle of the oak tree sprouts from the acorn, the fight for survival begins. Then the sprout emerges from its protective pericarp and faces a thousand difficulties and dangers. It fights for water, nutrients and light coming from the soil surface. During this critical period, the presence of helpers is very important. Through its root system, the now seedling produces various hormones and excretes root exudates which serve as “bait” for symbiont organisms. The oak tree never stops producing these and in-lieu of the hormones symbiont fungi and bacteria provides them with nutrients that are otherwise difficult to absorb. Fungi even provide extra moisture to the roots. Thanks to the fungus-root symbiosis, the root volume of the oak multiplies, and as time progresses, the oak connects to the Wood Wide Web with the help of fungal hyphae. The tree that serves as our example now reached the age of forty. In a few decades it will pass on its genes too. Around the age of sixty the tree starts producing acorns, its reproductive seeds.
The Wood Wide Web is an underground network, a symbiotic system that consists of plant roots and fungal mycelium and it allows trees and plants to exchange nutrients, water, and even chemical signals.2 What do we mean by the latter? For instance, if a pathogen damaging trees appears in one part of the forest this web makes it possible for other trees to prepare and produce certain antibodies.3
Forty years have passed and the tree in our story reached the beautiful age of a hundred. The year is 1900, Great Hungary (Hungarian Kingdom) still exists, and it was around this time when the first flight experiments of the Wright brothers took place. By now the English oak plays an important role in the life of the forest. It is around 15 metres tall, and its leaves have unrestricted access to light. It stores vast amounts of carbon dioxide, a few tons.
The adult tree is able to store around 20 tons of carbon dioxide in its trunk, branches and roots during its lifetime. After the tree’s demise decomposers help the soil to absorb most of the CO2 in a few decades or centuries. (Fancy that, carbon dioxides stored in the soil for even a couple of centuries get back to the atmosphere after a few years of ploughing.)4
In 1950 the British oak is a significant part of the forest ecosystem. Its crown is home of a few hundred living creatures such as squirrels, birds and insects. Now it produces a high yield feeding forest animals while the rest makes reproduction possible. It plays a major role in both the microscopic and non-microscopic world underground. The invisible, underground information network has no idea of the approaching danger.
Between 1970 and 1980, agriculture began to develop rapidly. The tree is around 180 years old. The development of the mechanical and chemical industry brings an increase in agricultural production in train. We produce more and more efficiently. More powerful and efficient machines also make it possible to cultivate areas that were not possible to manage before. Unfortunately, at the same time, nature suffers enormous damage. Modern agriculture has left the traditional framework.
210 years have passed since the oak sprouted. The landscape has changed. The tree was left alone. It stands in its solitude, being dwarfed by vast grain fields, as a reminder of the former forest.
Our story could even be true, and it is true except for one thing. The only fictive part is the time period. Deforestation and different methods of taking advantage of forests like this already occurred in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the 19th century, they reached such a scale that by the end of the 1800s there were hardly any primaeval forests left in Central Europe, and nowadays they have completely disappeared. Our farmlands served as soil for former primaeval forests and primaeval grasslands. With today’s modern agriculture, we destroy the productivity that ecosystems gave to a landscape over thousands of years in mere decades.
If we want to understand the function and significance of soils, we must take a step back. Since soil is one of the most important scenes of natural events, examining the biosphere itself should come first if we want to grasp the significance of soil.
The utmost importance of soils for humanity lies in its fertility. In order to showcase this property, I will once again choose a subject. I invite you on a journey through space and time, during which we will follow the life of the 200-year-old oak, from the moment when its seed began to sprout until now. The English oak (whose scientific name is Quercus Robur) is a long-lived autochthon species. When it comes to folklore its key role is irrefutable, durable and robustious trees are highly valued, consequently oak trees are also cherished. They are of chosen to be planted in memory of important locations and events of great significance, which then carried and passed down the legend associated with it for hundreds of years. This is the reason why a lot of ancient trees could have been “handed down”. Oaks could reach the age of three or four hundred years, but they can live much longer. If we let them…
“The Árpád-oak in Hédervár must be the oldest tree in Hungary. According to the legend, the marks on the trunk of the tree were left by the bridle of General Árpád’s horse in 907, when the prince rested here with his army and held a council of war preparing for the Battle of Bratislava. Researchers estimate it to be younger than that, “only” 700-800 years old, nevertheless there are no other trees in our country that reached this old age. Even among the stone masterpieces of architecture, there are few that have survived for so long.”
When trees are not planted by hand to be a keeper of memories till the end of time, it happened that jays (Garrulus glandarius) sowed the acorns. They are known to do this so that they would have enough food for winter. At the same time jays have numerous hiding places for their food caches so it is not uncommon for them to forget the exact location of some of them. The seeds saved in this way germinate and, if they are lucky, can live for hundreds of years.
Sometime in the mid-1800’s, a jay left an acorn on the ground. This is how our oak’s story begins. In many cases, the seed of a plant already has a so-called “helper” microbial package before entering the ground. As the name suggests, this is a community of helpful microorganisms that is activated when the seeds are planted in the ground. When the radicle of the oak tree sprouts from the acorn, the fight for survival begins. Then the sprout emerges from its protective pericarp and faces a thousand difficulties and dangers. It fights for water, nutrients and light coming from the soil surface. During this critical period, the presence of helpers is very important. Through its root system, the now seedling produces various hormones and excretes root exudates which serve as “bait” for symbiont organisms. The oak tree never stops producing these and in-lieu of the hormones symbiont fungi and bacteria provides them with nutrients that are otherwise difficult to absorb. Fungi even provide extra moisture to the roots. Thanks to the fungus-root symbiosis, the root volume of the oak multiplies, and as time progresses, the oak connects to the Wood Wide Web with the help of fungal hyphae. The tree that serves as our example now reached the age of forty. In a few decades it will pass on its genes too. Around the age of sixty the tree starts producing acorns, its reproductive seeds.
The Wood Wide Web is an underground network, a symbiotic system that consists of plant roots and fungal mycelium and it allows trees and plants to exchange nutrients, water, and even chemical signals. What do we mean by the latter? For instance, if a pathogen damaging trees appears in one part of the forest this web makes it possible for other trees to prepare and produce certain antibodies.
Forty years have passed and the tree in our story reached the beautiful age of a hundred. The year is 1900, Great Hungary (Hungarian Kingdom) still exists, and it was around this time when the first flight experiments of the Wright brothers took place. By now the English oak plays an important role in the life of the forest. It is around 15 metres tall, and its leaves have unrestricted access to light. It stores vast amounts of carbon dioxide, a few tons.
The adult tree is able to store around 20 tons of carbon dioxide in its trunk, branches and roots during its lifetime. After the tree’s demise decomposers help the soil to absorb most of the CO2 in a few decades or centuries. (Fancy that, carbon dioxides stored in the soil for even a couple of centuries get back to the atmosphere after a few years of ploughing.)
In 1950 the British oak is a significant part of the forest ecosystem. Its crown is home of a few hundred living creatures such as squirrels, birds and insects. Now it produces a high yield feeding forest animals while the rest makes reproduction possible. It plays a major role in both the microscopic and non-microscopic world underground. The invisible, underground information network has no idea of the approaching danger.
Between 1970 and 1980, agriculture began to develop rapidly. The tree is around 180 years old. The development of the mechanical and chemical industry brings an increase in agricultural production in train. We produce more and more efficiently. More powerful and efficient machines also make it possible to cultivate areas that were not possible to manage before. Unfortunately, at the same time, nature suffers enormous damage. Modern agriculture has left the traditional framework.5
210 years have passed since the oak sprouted. The landscape has changed. The tree was left alone. It stands in its solitude, being dwarfed by vast grain fields, as a reminder of the former forest.6
Our story could even be true, and it is true except for one thing. The only fictive part is the time period. Deforestation and different methods of taking advantage of forests like this already occurred in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the 19th century, they reached such a scale that by the end of the 1800s there were hardly any primaeval forests left in Central Europe, and nowadays they have completely disappeared.7 Our farmlands served as soil for former primaeval forests and primaeval grasslands. With today’s modern agriculture, we destroy the productivity that ecosystems gave to a landscape over thousands of years in mere decades.
“And there was forest.” (Lőrinc Szabó)
Translated by Zsófia Horváth.
Notes:
- https://evfaja.hu/fa/2014/hedervari-arpad-tolgy ↩︎
- Wood wide web’—the underground network of microbes that connects trees—mapped for first time | Science | AAAS ↩︎
- Bővebben ld.: Peter Wohlleben: A fák titkos élete. Budapest, Park Kiadó, 2021. ↩︎
- Bővebben ld.: Peter Wohlleben: A fák titkos élete. Budapest, Park Kiadó, 2021. ↩︎
- Borsos Béla: Termő Televény. Typotex Elektronikus Kiadó, 2018. ↩︎
- Primeval forest: a predominantly woody vegetation cover that has evolved naturally over centuries or millennia, without external human influence, in response to the conditions of the site. It has a species composition, structure, age distribution and regeneration (small and large forest cycles) that cannot be compared with cultivated forests. ↩︎
- Bartha Dénes – Oroszi Sándor: Őserdők a Kárpát-medencében. Budapest, Ekvilibrium Kiadó, 2005. ↩︎
About the author: Erik Paxian, wildlife management engineer, soil science engineer, golden wheat ear farmer. He specialised in permaculture, garden and agro-environmental systems, sustainability, water management, medicinal herb cultivation.
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